Why piglets eat poorly and do not gain weight
One of the main tasks of pig breeding is feeding healthy livestock. Therefore, when the piglets lose their appetite, the situation becomes threatening for this business. Why the pig does not eat or the piglets do not eat well, and how to cope with this problem - we will consider the answers to these questions in the following order:
- reasons for decreased appetite;
- how to increase the appetite of piglets.
Healthy animals in favorable conditions have a stable interest in food. If the young have ceased to show it, the reasons are always diseases or improper conditions of detention.
Disease
Loss of appetite in a pig is one of the earliest manifestations of illness and cannot be ignored. There are three main groups of diseases:
- infectious - viral;
- non-infectious - diseases of the respiratory tract, trauma, poisoning with poor-quality food;
- helminthic invasions.
Decreased food cravings can be a harbinger of a problem in any of these groups. After him, one should wait for the manifestation of other, more characteristic signs of the disease. When they appear, it is necessary to isolate the unwelling animal from the rest, consult a veterinarian.
Distribution of feed to pigs in the pen
Stress
A pig is an animal with a nervous system of increased excitability and a poor ability to adapt to new conditions. Many factors can provoke a stressful state in pigs, give rise to a decrease in appetite:
- too early weaning of piglets from a sow;
- changing the place of detention (regrouping, changing the machine);
- a decrease or increase in temperature in the pigsty;
- lack of lighting;
- poor ventilation, air pollution with ammonia and hydrogen sulfide;
- veterinary procedures (castration, vaccination, blood sampling);
- a sharp change in diet;
- overcrowding of animals;
- impossibility of natural behavior (satisfaction of curiosity, digging in the ground).
Stress conditions in pigs for a long duration can lead to exhaustion and death of animals. They can be avoided if you strictly follow the rules of maintenance and requirements for the pigsty.
Perhaps the flock is eating poorly due to a sudden change in the habitual diet. It is necessary to introduce new feeds, gradually adding them to the main diet.
For games and imitation of behavior in a natural environment, it is necessary to provide an opportunity to rummage in the litter, gnaw on various objects - ropes made of natural materials, old tires, balls, boards. Every pig should have free access to these items.
Pig game rope
Improper maintenance and care
Pigs, despite the erroneous judgments about them, are very demanding on cleanliness and climatic conditions in the room. Of great importance to your well-being and appetite are:
- air temperature;
- air humidity;
- the presence of drafts;
- air pollution level.
For different ages of animals, there are certain climatic standards. A decrease and an increase in temperature in a pigsty are equally dangerous and can cause lethargy, loss of appetite, and weight loss in piglets.
The indicator of relative humidity is admissible in the range of 50-70% with a critical limit of 75%.
Ventilation in the room should be carried out without the formation of high-speed air currents. The gas content of the pigsty must also be controlled.
Avitaminosis
Lack of vitamins of various groups in the body leads to disruption of metabolic processes in piglets, lethargy, weight loss, increased sensitivity to infections.
If, in addition to a decrease in interest in food, there are no other signs of concern, the mumps does not tend to lie down constantly, periodically shows activity - it can be assumed that it has vitamin deficiency. With a deterioration in appetite, first of all, a lack of vitamin D or anemia - a lack of iron - is possible.
Vitamin D in piglets is produced by exposure to the sun and is responsible for the feeling of hunger. Its chronic deficiency leads not only to a decrease in appetite, but also to disorders in the formation of the bone and nervous system, the development of rickets. To replenish vitamin D reserves, an additional intake is prescribed, the introduction of fish oil into the diet. In addition, the young should be in the sun.
Anemia is manifested by lethargy and refusal to eat in piglets under 4 weeks of age. In this case, the veterinarian prescribes injections of iron preparations and a metered addition of ferrous sulfate to the drinking water.
Veterinary fish oil in different packaging
Aversion to feed
Piglets can be "naughty" and eat poorly without showing any other negative symptoms, while remaining mobile and healthy in appearance. The reason is that they don't like the food on offer and should be varied.
A pig may refuse dry feed due to a lack of drinking water.
How to increase the appetite of piglets
What can you do to give your piglets a healthy interest in food?
First of all, for the timely detection of a decrease in appetite in pigs, the time of emptying the feeders should be monitored. If, with two meals a day, food lies in the troughs for more than two hours, you need to start worrying.
How to increase the attractiveness of pig feed
Pigs like the sweet, sour, salty, bitter taste of food. This should be used to increase the appetite of the livestock.
To add sweetness, sugar is added to the feed, citric or lactic acid for sour shades of taste, mustard powder, calcium chloride for bitterness. Flavoring additives are changed at regular intervals, for example, every 2 days, a week, a decade. If the same taste gets bored, the pigs may stop eating again.
To enhance the attractiveness of the feed, aromatization with essential oils is used. This is especially effective when weaning piglets from a sow. A simple technique is used to facilitate the transfer of suckers to fattening and to avoid weaning stress. Certain flavoring oils are added to the food of sows during the milk feeding period. Piglets get used to their smell with their mother's milk. In the future, the same oil is added to the baby feed after weaning. Piglets, hearing the usual smell of mother's milk, begin to eat the proposed feed with great appetite and quickly gain weight.
You can make food tastier for pigs by roasting the cereal before grinding and adding it to the food.
Boiling or steaming grain also helps to increase interest in food and improve digestion. The grain becomes softer, better eaten and absorbed. The aromatic fumes emanating from it have a beneficial effect on the pigs' appetite.
Adding green feed to pigs' diets
How to increase the usefulness of feed
To increase the usefulness of the feed, improve appetite, cover the deficiency of vitamin E and B vitamins, you can add sprouted grains to the food of animals or "yeast" the feed. Most often, regular baker's yeast is used for this. The feed prepared by the yeast method contains a lot of protein, amino acids, vitamins, as well as ethyl alcohol. These components significantly increase the appetite of pigs, promote rapid growth.
Thus, the answer to the question of why piglets begin to eat poorly may be hidden behind several different factors. It is necessary to carefully analyze each of them in order to establish and eliminate in time the real cause of loss of appetite in pigs. The successful cultivation of productive livestock depends on this.